In printing his name, the Lexington Herald-Leader enabled search engines to find that with which Justin Tyler Ainslie was charged. Considering the charges, whether he is found guilty or not, in the real world, he’s going to have to change his name, because otherwise, he’s toast. Unlike our ‘local’ McClatchy newspapers, I publish mugshots.

Lexington man facing federal charges after thousands of child pornography images found

By Morgan Eads | July 7, 2021 | 7:42 AM EDT

A Lexington man is facing federal charges of receiving and distributing child pornography after a tip from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children led investigators to thousands of explicit images of children on his cellphone.

Justin Tyler Ainslie was identified as the user of a phone line and Google account that uploaded images of child sexual abuse to cloud-based storage, according to a federal affidavit. The images were noticed in May of 2020 by Synchronoss Technologies, Inc., and the company, which provides storage services to Verizon customers, reported the images to the Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Lexington police were notified and obtained search warrants for the Synchronoss account, Google account and Verizon phone number connected to the tip, according to the affidavit. The investigators learned that the accounts were owned by Ainslie. . . .

On June 21, 2021, a special agent with Homeland Security and a Lexington police detective reviewed evidence found on Ainslie’s cellphone and KIK account. The analysis found about 11,524 image files and 1,501 video files of suspected child sexual abuse, according to the federal affidavit.

Mr Ainslie was arrested on November 10, 2020. The Herald-Leader story noted that he was released after posting a $10,000 bond. The story states that he admitted to detectives with the Lexington Police Department that ha had received, viewed, and subsequently shared child pornography images. Assuming that the LPD detectives recorded Mr Ainslie’s interrogation, the case against him should have been open-and-shut. Despite the courts being seriously restricted, due to Governor Andy Beshear’s (D-KY) COVID-19 restrictions, this should have been a plea deal arranged with Mr Ainslie’s attorney, by telephone, and he should have already been in jail. Instead, he has his first court appearance scheduled for later today.

The Herald-Leader story is, unfortunately, an example of poor writing and poor journalism. Were the Homeland Security agent and LPD detective reviewing evidence seized in November, or did they seize a cell phone he had after his release on bond? My first impression was that law enforcement had caught him again for violations while he was out on bond, but, on second reading — and being able to review things is why print sources are so important to me — I realized that was not what the article said.

Was Mr Ainslie caught a second time? It certainly sounds like it! But it could just as easily have been that the LPD had seized his phone when he was arrested in November, and they were just getting around to reviewing the evidence with the feds in June. The Herald-Leader article is not over long, and Morgan Eads, the reporter, could have clarified that with a single sentence.

More, an editor, a second set of eyes, should have caught the problem. Are there no editors at the Herald-Leader?

Yeah, I get it: newspapers across the country are in difficult financial straits. But the Herald-Leader simply doesn’t have that many new stories to review; a quick look at the newspaper’s website main page shows only six non-sports stories dated today. And it has always been the responsibility of editors to check reporters’ stories for grammar (hah!), spelling and poorly crafted sentences.